


Shelter

by forgotmyline



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:28:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23595349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgotmyline/pseuds/forgotmyline
Summary: Cullen reconnects with Devi Surana when she collapses at the gate to Skyhold shortly after the defeat of Corypheus.
Relationships: Cullen Rutherford/Female Surana
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Shelter

It was difficult to believe that it was actually over, that Corypheus was dead, truly dead this time, slain by the Inquisitor not even a fortnight ago. Cullen replayed the events in his mind as he walked the battlements outside his office. He had known that Nahuel would persevere - he was born and bred to fight, his daggers very nearly an extension of his being, had trained all his life to protect his people, and he had certainly put his skills to good use for the Inquisition. Still, watching the battle from below, unable to help… there had been moments of doubt. At one point it looked as though Corypheus’ red lyrium dragon might get the better of them, but then Morrigan had shifted into a dragon herself, of all things. She had nearly died taking it down, but down it went, turning the tide of battle for them. It had been a glorious sight indeed. 

He continued to pace back and forth, finally pausing to lean on a low part of the wall and look over the bridge that led to Skyhold. The mountains in the distance seemed never ending, unforgiving in their cruelty. He could handle the cold - he was Ferelden, after all, and they were a hearty people - but he was only just getting used to the perpetual snowfall. He still wasn't sure he would ever get used to the wind though, its gusts so strong they could steal a person right off the bridge below if they weren't careful. 

Cullen sighed as he straightened himself. There was work to be done, even with the defeat of Corypheus, and he really couldn't spare the time he was spending musing in the cold. He started to turn back, but something caught his eye - a figure on the bridge, a person stumbling alone toward Skyhold. He was too far away to see who it was, but they were hunched over as if ill or injured, using a walking stick to keep upright.

As he ran down the stairs, he motioned to one of Leliana’s nearby scouts to follow him, not bothering to slow down. He didn’t stop until he reached the gates, and only then just long enough to yell for them to be opened. The person on the bridge was becoming clearer, but not enough that he could recognize any of the slight figure’s features beneath a voluminous hood. They got closer still as the gate began to rise, and a head looked up, hood falling away, a wary smile on lips cracked from cold and dehydration. Cullen started in surprise as he was finally able to recognize the woman headed his way.

The gate wasn’t opening quickly enough, but Cullen was able to duck under it, just barely managing to squeeze his large frame through the small gap. The wind clawed and bit at his face, pushing him back as he tried to reach her. Maker, it didn’t seem possible. It had been more than a decade since he had seen her last, though it felt like a lifetime ago. Still, he recognized her, broken and weary as she was.

It felt like it took ages to reach her, but reach her he did. He wrapped his arms around her to offer support, and she attempted another small grin. “Well, if it isn’t Cullen Rutherford. What’s a nice templar like you doing in a place like this?”

Her voice was hoarse, barely audible, but it was just like her to make a joke even as she was collapsing into his arms. She started to protest as Cullen picked her up, but he ignored her feeble complaints, unsure if she would make it into Skyhold on her own. “Hush, Dev. Let me help you.”

She nodded, thank the Maker, dropping her pack and staff so that she could grip the fur of his cloak with both hands. She leaned her head on his shoulder, an exhausted sigh escaping as her eyes drifted closed. Cullen looked around briefly as he made his way back through the gates and nodded at the scout he had dragged along with him. “Go find a healer and send them to my quarters. Then I want you to find Leliana and tell her that Devi Surana just collapsed in my arms.”

The young woman tilted her head at him before running off, and if she knew that the woman Cullen had in his arms was the Hero of Ferelden, she gave no indication of it.

*****

Back and forth. And then again, and again. Cullen was going to wear a path in his office floor with his pacing, not that he noticed or cared. He could hear the healer and Leliana speaking upstairs, his sleeping quarters turned into an impromptu sickbed for Devi after he carried her there. Their voices were hushed, and though Cullen strained to hear them, he couldn't make out the words. It was driving him mad. 

Ten years. More than that now, actually, since he had seen her. He had been stationed at Kinloch Hold while she was there, just before she had left to become a Grey Warden. They had struck up an unlikely friendship, Cullen still new enough that he didn't realize that it just wasn't done and Devi… well, she just hadn't cared much. 

Of course, he had ruined everything. It's not that he hadn't wanted her - Maker knows he did, rather desperately, in fact - but it would have crossed a line that he hadn't been prepared to cross just then. So he ran away at the merest suggestion that she wanted more than just friendship from him. Devi had been recruited by the Grey Wardens shortly after and he hadn't seen her again until the circle fell. He hadn't acted like himself, like the man she had befriended, and they didn't part on the best of terms. 

So it would be an understatement to say he was surprised by her arrival. Of course, it was far more likely that she had come here because of Leliana. They had traveled together during the Blight, after all, and he knew they were close friends. Yes, that made much more sense. 

“Commander! You may come up now, if you wish.”

He jumped at Leliana’s call, anxious to find out how Devi fared. The healer was leaving, and he waited for her to climb down his ladder before rushing up there himself. Leliana had dragged his chest next to the bed and was using it in lieu of a chair. He hesitated for a moment, not sure if he should sit next to her, but she slid over and patted the spot next to her, making the decision for him. Cullen sat, looking at Leliana because he wasn’t sure if he was ready to see Devi looking so ill again. She had always been so full of life and energy, and to see her like this - her golden brown skin dull and pale from whatever illness was ravaging through her, her body too thin, as if she hadn’t enough food on her journeys, making her look even more slight than she already was - it broke his heart.

“So…?”

Leliana cleared her throat. “She’s dehydrated, malnourished, but I’m sure you had already guessed that, Cullen. There’s something else, something curious,” she hesitated, turning to face him before she continued. “Brynne, the healer, she’s not an expert by any means, but she has treated Grey Wardens before, and she can recognize the darkspawn taint in them when she does her work. Not in Devi, though. She couldn’t sense it at all.”

No darkspawn taint? Cullen had only ever heard of that happening to one Grey Warden before. “Have you sent for Fiona?”

Leliana chuckled, her tone a gentle tease. “Do you take me for some sort of amateur? Brynne should be back with her soon.”

Cullen nodded, silent as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“She spoke of you, you know, when we traveled together during the Blight. Especially at the beginning,” Leliana said, her voice low as if she didn’t want to disturb Devi. “She… she cared for you, Cullen, a great deal, I think, though she often tried to play it off as youthful indiscretion.”

Did their friendship mean as much to her as it meant to him, then? Not that it mattered - he messed up any chance he might have had, first when he turned her down and then when he said all those awful things to her when the Ferelden circle fell.

Leliana continued as if she had read his mind. “She was so heartsick after Kinloch Hold, seeing so many friends killed and worse. And seeing what happened to you, of course.”

“I can’t imagine Devi had many good things to say about me after that,” he replied with a snort. “Maker’s breath, Leliana, I said the worst sorts of things to her. About mages. About _ her _ . I wouldn’t be surprised if she hated me after that.”

“Cullen, no!” Leliana answered, giving his shoulder a light squeeze. “She knew what you had been through and she never hated you. Honestly, can you even imagine Devi hating anyone?”

“No, no I can’t,” he chuckled, running a hand through his waves absentmindedly. “Devi never met a stranger she couldn’t turn into a friend, did she?”

“She’s gone through worse and come out just fine - Devi will make it through whatever this is too. We’ll make sure of it.”

*****

Minutes turned into hours, turned into days, and still Devi slept. When he wasn’t working, Cullen was by her side, pacing mostly, occasionally falling asleep in a chair he managed to wrangle up here with a little help from some of his men. Fiona had come up and looked Devi over, unable to provide any answers, mumbling something about their circumstances being very different. Leliana had sent a letter off with one of her birds to the king of Ferelden, another of her and Devi’s traveling companions during the blight. And Cullen, well, he waited and paced and worked. 

And then finally,  _ finally _ , a week after she had collapsed in his arms, he saw her eyelids flutter as she mumbled something unintelligible. It took another minute or so before her eyes opened and she looked around, clearly confused. “Cullen Rutherford? How did…”

He took her hand in his, and was more pleased than he ought to be when she didn’t pull it away. “You’re alright, Dev. Do you remember anything about coming to Skyhold?”

Her brows furrowed and she pushed herself into a sitting position with her free hand. She took a glass of water Cullen handed her, sipping a little before placing it on a small table at the side of the bed. “Skyhold? I… yes. I was on my way to Ferelden, to Denerim. I needed to see Al… the king. I have important information about the Grey Wardens… Anyway, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to make it the entire way, not even close, but I could manage Skyhold. Leliana and I have been in touch, and I knew I would be welcome here. And of course, you’re here. It’s been some time, but you were always a friend Cullen.”

She squeezed his hand, weak still from whatever she had been through. “I understand if you can’t tell me - I know the Wardens hold their secrets tightly, but our healer. Dev, our healer couldn’t sense the darkspawn taint in you.”

He left the question unasked between them, the air heavy with it and all that it implied. She didn’t answer out loud, just gave him a slight nod of her head. “You see why I have to tell him? Even after everything, he deserves the chance to be free of it. And he’s king now. Removing it means he and his wife could..” she choked up a little, and paused to try to regain her composure, though her voice was still low and shaky. “They could have a child, or several, heirs so the country doesn’t fall to pieces when he dies. He was by my side for the entire blight, helped me end it, would have given his life to do so if necessary. He deserves this, no matter how he and I left things.”

She looked up, almost shocked to see Cullen there, as if she had been talking to herself the whole time. He didn’t like the haunted look in her eyes, or the way she had gotten so quiet when she spoke of the king. Cullen knew that they had been lovers during the blight, and he could gather that things hadn’t ended well, considering the fact that he was now married to his brother’s widow. “Leliana already sent a missive to Denerim with one of her birds. You’ve been here about a week, so it’s probably already reached him or will within a few days. He can’t just leave at the drop of a hat, being the king and all, so he probably won’t leave for another several days at least, maybe even a week. I’d say you’ve got about a month or so, longer if his advisors force him to bring any sort of entourage.”

She shook her head, as if trying to clear any lingering thoughts of him from her mind. “You're the one who caught me when I arrived, aren't you? I vaguely remember making a stupid joke as I collapsed.”

Cullen chuckled, bringing a smile to Devi’s face. “You know, I always did love your silly jokes. Yes, that was me. I was walking along the ramparts and saw someone crossing the bridge to Skyhold. Maker, I felt sorry for whoever that poor sod down there was, so I rushed down to help. And then I got to the gate and it was  _ you,  _ of all people, Devi Surana, the Hero of Ferelden. My friend. Or you were all those years ago, at any rate, until I mucked it all up.”

“Mucked it up? Because you turned me down when I propositioned you? Very awkwardly, I might add.” She shook her head, laughing. “Cull, that’s not how I remember it. I was so embarrassed after that, you know. Do you remember that night?”

“In surprisinging detail, still. I was such a fool then. We were walking in the tower, an hour or so before lights out. I was on patrol, and you were keeping me company. I think we were arguing about something in a book you had lent me. I walked you back to the dormitories,” he paused, looking down at their clasped hands in his lap, the other rubbing the back of his neck. “I was an idiot, Dev. I remember how lovely you looked, the way you played with the sleeves of your robes. They were a deep red, my favorite of yours. You took a deep breath, and without any sort of leading up to things, you asked me if I wanted to meet you after everyone was asleep. And I mumbled something about duty and then ran off. And two days later, you were gone and I never got to explain myself.”

“Oh,” she gasped quietly, touching the fingers of her free hand to her lips for a moment. “I always assumed that I mucked things up by asking in the first place, that  _ I _ ruined our friendship by asking...but it almost sounds as if you wanted to say yes.”

“Of course I did. You were my best friend, and Maker knows I’ve always thought you were beautiful. Even before we became friends, I had a rather embarrassing crush on you. But you were a mage under my charge, under my  _ protection _ . It felt too much like I might have been taking advantage of my position and you deserved more than anything I could give you. Not that it matters now, I suppose. We’ve both been through much and I imagine neither of us has come out completely unscathed. We are not those same young fools we once were.”

His lips curled up in a wry grin and she returned the expression. “No, I suppose not. However, I’m going to be here for some time it seems, so maybe we can get to know these new fools we’ve become, perhaps even call each other friend again?”

Devi’s voice was full of hope, a stark contrast to how pale she still was, how bruised and weak, and Cullen could not help but feel a tug at his heart. “You know, I do believe I would enjoy that a great deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I was going through my google docs recently and found this, written about 2 years ago probably. I think I had plans to expand it a little, but I like it as is. I might add more eventually, but I don't know. I also must have decided that I didn't care if the Warden's secrets are a little less secret for the purpose of my story and didn't feel like changing it.


End file.
